Take this tried and true advice from some of the best age-groupers in the sport to your next start line.

by Selwyn Parker

With all your training, preparation, ups and downs, travel and logistics, here you are, perhaps just days out from an IRONMAN race. It could be your first or your fifth, but nevertheless, it's a big day. Suddenly, everything you've read, heard, and learned disappears in a wave of anxiety. You need a refresher.

Here are some nuggets of wisdom from some of the best age groupers in the sport—all who competed at the IRONMAN World Championship this year. Kona, where the hype is huge, the complications many, the weather hot, and the crowds large. Oh, and the expectations high.

No matter what event you've got up next, they're here to offer advice to help you achieve your best possible day.

Before the gun

Get lazy. It’s not in the nature of triathletes to do nothing, especially after many months of solid training, but this is the time to break a good habit. Bring a big book and get the load off your feet as often as you can. Exercise specialists say that walking slowly around town is one of the most tiring things a fit person can do.

Know why you're there. As American Melissa Mantak, professional triathlon coach and chapter author of The Women’s Guide to Triathlon tells her newbies: "Be clear on what your goals are for the race. Are you there to perform or participate?" Mantak, a former ITU World Cup series overall champion, explains that this is crucial to energy management in the days leading up to the race. For her, energy management comes in two forms: "It’s physical and mental, with the one influencing the other." As she has observed over the years, many athletes [do a race] to participate in the first year, learn the ropes, and have fun. Next time they will focus on their performance.

No time for self-doubt. The race site will be milling with some of the best athletes in the world and it’s easy to be intimidated by what New Zealand athlete Fiona Macdougall calls "all those ten-hour bodies." At these times just remind yourself you’ve done the work and you deserve to be there.

Get anal. When everything is on the to-do list—registration, bike and gear checks, numbering, food and drink, stretching routines, pre-race training sessions, and all the other things you must get through before the start—it can easily run to 50 items. Write them all down by date and time, and take the list with you everywhere. As five-time Kona veteran Akio Yamauchi, a publisher from Japan in the 55-59 category remembers, one year he failed to check exactly what he threw into his gear bags. When he finished the swim, he found his run shoes and cap in the bike bag and had to make a quick dash to T2 next door to sort it all out. "Believe it or not, two of my Japanese friends made the same silly mistake as me," he recounts.

Feet first. "Happy feet are important," says American Dexter Yeats, a former teamster from the San Francisco Bay area who avoided potentially race-wrecking blisters when she competed for the fifth time in Kona this year. "Keep your feet dry," she advises. "I put powder in my shoes and socks for the bike and run. In 2013 I forgot and the blisters were so bad it ruined my run."

Don't fixate on your time. Sure, 10 hours would be nice but don't think about it—too much. "You shouldn’t race against the clock in an IRONMAN," a former ITU star advises, speaking from his own experience. "It’s a race against your body." In a bitter disappointment he had to pull out half-way through Kona.

Zip it. While it will certainly settle your nerves to share your concerns and hopes with friends before the race, too much chatter drains vital nervous energy. You will notice that the best athletes talk no more than necessary in the final few days as they prepare their mind for the battle with the distance. Said another way: The boasting stops when the flag drops.

Stay calm. "I recommend you should not be too nervous or too happy," adds Yamauchi, echoing the views of sports psychologists who counsel the importance of controlling the inner mind.

See it, do it. Visualisation of the important moments of the race will help you execute them correctly. Once again, sports psychologists recommend that athletes create a picture in their mind of the situations they expect to face so that, in one sense, they have been there before. Visualisation is considered better than reciting a set of instructions to yourself because it’s more real.

Tried and true. Don’t wear anything you’ve not thoroughly tested before, and especially not running shoes. My wife Margaret, who had completed nearly 30 marathons in good times, had to walk all the way from the Kona Energy Lab when her hips seized up. Although she’d worn her racing flats several times before, she had never run a marathon in them.

After the gun

Stay cool in mind and body. In the excitement of exiting the water, it’s easy to forget you’re already dehydrated. A doctor friend of mine hammered the bike so hard in the first 40 km that he never troubled his water bottle. He was soon in such dire straits that he was pulled out of the race for two hours until deemed safe enough to continue, albeit cautiously.

Don't be a horse out of the gate. Pacing is everything, especially if you haven’t prepared as well as you would have liked through illness, pressure of work or other factors. Medics say they brace themselves for the "train wrecks," as they put it, as the cut-off point approaches. That is, athletes who have pushed themselves beyond their limit as they fight to crack the 17 hours. In their case the universal advice is to start out easy and slowly build into the race.

Enjoy the day. Well, as much as possible. Ex-teamster Dexter Yeats, who will compete in the 70-74 age group, has her own mantra—"a smile every mile." As she explains, "it keeps you feeling upbeat."

And, she adds, don’t forget to thank the volunteers. After all, it helps keep them going too.

Selwyn Parker is a journalist, author and triathlete representing Britain. He placed third in his age group in the 2017 ITU World Championship in Rotterdam.